![]() ![]() These insights draw largely from social network theories, cultural sociology, sociology of emotions, and sociological social psychology. We also discuss limitations in the Durkheimian approach and how more recent efforts have not only addressed those concerns but have done so by bringing sociology’s broader theoretical and empirical toolkit to bare on suicide. Much of the nuance and richness of Durkheim’s insights have been lost in modern suicidology, and yet Durkheim is foundational to understanding sociological theories of suicide, as well as understanding the potential of sociology for suicidology. However, we offer a more comprehensive understanding of Durkheim’s insights into suicide than prior reviews provided by non-sociologists ( Joiner, 2005). We begin where all sociologists must: with Durkheim. Here, we review sociological theories of suicide with the explicit goal of building bridges. Unfortunately, despite making significant contributions to the founding of suicidology – through Emile Durkheim’s (1897/1951) classic Suicide – sociology’s role has been less prominent in contemporary efforts to address these tragic trends, though as we will show, sociological theories offer great promise for advancing our understanding of suicide and improving the efficacy of suicide prevention. These trends have been identified as a public health crisis in urgent need of new solutions ( Office of the Surgeon General and National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, 2012) and have spurred significant research efforts to improve our understanding of suicide ( Joiner, 2005 Klonsky and May, 2015 O’Connor and Kirtley, 2018) and strategies to prevent it ( Wyman et al., 2010 Wasserman et al., 2015). The past 20 years have seen dramatic rises in suicide rates in the United States and other countries around the world ( Curtin et al., 2016 Lee et al., 2018 Martini et al., 2019). We conclude by making explicit bridges between sociological and psychological theories of suicide by noting important limitations in knowledge about suicide – particularly regarding the roles of organizations, inequality, and intersectionality in suicide – that sociology is well situated to help address. Specifically, we review how recent sociological theories of suicide have incorporated insights from social network theories, cultural sociology, sociology of emotions, and sociological social psychology to better theorize how the external social world matters to individual psychological pain and suffering. We proceed to discuss broadly acknowledged limitations to Durkheim’s theory of suicide and review how more recent theoretical efforts have not only addressed those concerns, but have done so by bringing a larger swatch of sociology’s theoretical and empirical toolkit to bare on suicide. In so doing, we reveal the nuance and richness of Durkheim’s insights that have been largely lost in modern suicidology, despite being foundational to all sociological theories of suicide – even those that have moved beyond his model. ![]() However, we offer a more comprehensive understanding of Durkheim’s insights into suicide than the prior reviews provided by those in other disciplines. Here, we review sociological theory and empirical research on suicide. Unfortunately, despite making significant contributions to the founding of suicidology – through Emile Durkheim’s classic Suicide (1897/1951) – sociology’s role has been less prominent in contemporary efforts to address these tragic trends, though as we will show, sociological theories offer great promise for advancing our understanding of suicide and improving the efficacy of suicide prevention. These trends have been identified as a public health crisis in urgent need of new solutions and have spurred significant research efforts to improve our understanding of suicide and strategies to prevent it. The past 20 years have seen dramatic rises in suicide rates in the United States and other countries around the world.
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